Category Archives: Press release

Organisations that support landlords and tenants have just four weeks left to apply for a share of a £70,000 funding pot from the TDS Charitable Foundation.

The amount of money available to fund innovative projects that benefit the private rented sector has been increased for 2016, and people are urged to submit their bids before the deadline on Wednesday 10th August.

In particular, the foundation is looking to make funding available to commission a feasibility study into establishing a dedicated research centre for the sector in England and Wales.

More than £175,000 in grants has been given out by the TDS Charitable Foundation since it was established in 2014 by TDS, the UK’s leading insurance-backed tenancy deposit scheme. As the only not-for-profit scheme in its industry, TDS is committed to raising standards in the private rented sector.

Organisations that have successfully applied for funding in the past include Designs on Property Ltd, which was awarded £15,000 to fund a series of 12 independent reports on the private rented sector, the first of which looked into the typical buy-to-rent landlord and was published earlier this month.

Industry expert and report author Kate Faulkner said: “Without the funding from the TDS Charitable Foundation we would not have been able to carry out this independent research, which I believe is vital if we are to fully understand the industry in which we work and start challenging the misperceptions surrounding the private rented sector.

“I’d never applied for funding before but there was plenty of support available at every stage of the process and I would really encourage anyone who thinks they have a project that meets the objectives of the foundation to apply.”

Prof Martin Partington, chairman of TDS and the TDS Charitable Foundation, said: “Our not-for-profit status enables us to use part of our surplus income to raise standards in the industry we serve by reinvesting in education and training and promoting best practice, and as an organisation this is something we are passionate about.”

Small organisations representing landlords or tenants that wish to deliver training about renting a property can access a train2rentfree training course pack that has been produced thanks to funding from the TDS Charitable Foundation.

The Trustees of the TDS Charitable Foundation have extended the deadline for the current round of funding and are now welcoming funding applications until 10 August 2016.

The Foundation works to advance education about housing rights and obligations in the private rented sector and because of this extended deadline, available funding for bids has been increased to £70,000. The Foundation is looking to support bids which promote knowledge of landlord’s obligations or tenant’s rights and responsibilities, but also to look at the feasibility of establishing a dedicated research centre for the private rented sector in England and Wales.

The last round of funding saw a total of over £50,000 of awards made to:

4 the community – a project to extend and improve the information, education, and support available to Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) tenants in Rhyl. The project will be to recruit and train a team of volunteers to deliver the service;

Cardiff Tenants and Residents Federation – a tenant education programme that specifically informs tenants about the key differences about renting in Wales, as well as wider rights and responsibilities;

EFA London – the delivery of a six-week housing rights and English language course to 120 students in four London boroughs – deepening student’s understanding of housing rights in the UK and of enhancing language learners’ ability to solve tenancy problems;

Law for Life – to develop and deliver training and information resources which will benefit both small and medium sized tenants organisations.

“These four projects are a wonderful example of how, since we established the charity in 2014, we have been able to provide funding for a whole range of innovative projects that benefit the private rented sector.”

He continued;

“The Foundation is interested in receiving further innovative proposals before 10 August and we are making double the funds available. We are particularly keen to see expressions of interest in relation to setting up a dedicated PRS research centre and will consider funding a feasibility study as to whether such a centre could be established for England and Wales.”

The TDS Charitable Foundation is currently welcoming bids for the current round of funding which is open until 10 August 2016.

If you are a small organisation, representing landlords or tenants, and wish to deliver training about renting a property, there is a free training course pack that may help you. This is a project previously funded by TDS Charitable Foundation, details online at www.train2rent.co.uk

In its annual review published this week, the TDS Charitable Foundation has revealed it provided £100,000 of funding for educational projects in its first year of operation. The Foundation aims to promote education for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector, and to raise standards in the industry.

Commenting on the report, Chair Professor Martin Partington said;

“We have been delighted at the number and variety of bids received over the year. Demand for funds greatly exceeded the resources we have available; the total value of bids in our first year was nearly £900,000! Initially we funded a number of smaller projects focussing on very local issues. But as the year progressed, the Trustees chose projects that would have greater national reach. For example, the development of training materials for other organisations to use in the delivery of local workshops. We felt this was better value for money, and these training packs are expected in the spring of 2016.”

Projects funded include the National Union of Students “ready to rent” initiative for the delivery of a tenant training programme for students, rolled out through students’ unions and Caerphilly County Borough Council to produce an equalities guidance booklet for landlords in Wales.

The Trustees are also on the lookout for really innovative ways to communicate information to landlords and tenants. For example in its most recent round of funding in October 2015, it funded the Ealing Equality Council £3,612 to deliver twenty four free walk in tenancy and support surgeries from a pop up shop.

Inviting applications for its next round of funding, which closes on the 10th December 2015, Professor Partington said:

“The theme for the last year has been educational projects to landlords and tenants to raise standards, and we are very keen to see bids that meet this objective. However, there is a lot of publicly available information for both landlords and tenants. Some of it is out of date and , more troubling, there is no central place for either of these groups to go to access the information they need.

The Trustees are keen to hear from organisations who would be interested in undertaking a feasibility study on improving the availability and dissemination of information in the private rented sector aimed at landlords and tenants.”

New education projects for tenants and landlords have received almost £40,000 in funding, the TDS Charitable Foundation has announced today.

The Foundation aims to promote education for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector, and to raise standards in the industry.

The projects range from a local youth club helping young care leavers to a nationwide programme for landlord accreditation across the UK.

Warrington Youth Club: £2,374

Warrington Youth Club’s ‘Positive Life Skills’ programme helps young care leavers in their transition from carers to an independent lives. The TDS Charitable Foundation grant will help this hard to reach group as they prepare for their transition to independent living, providing workshops on their rights and responsibilities as tenants.

Young Enterprise and Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG): £20,000

This project will also help young people in their transition into independent living, providing a new financial education teaching resource for 14-19 year olds. The resource will provide young people with information on the housing market, the options available to young people when they leave home and the costs they will need to prepare for.

Unipol Student Homes: £10,112

Unipol is providing a new website for Accreditation Network UK (ANUK). ANUK promotes landlord accreditation programmes across the UK and the improved website, to be managed by Unipol, will include a directory of landlord accreditation schemes and downloadable accreditation handbooks. It will also contribute towards one of their core aims, in the promotion of proper complaints processes to be transparent, rapid, and known to tenants.

NUS Ready to Rent: £17,295

Ready to Rent is a landmark programme equipping student unions with resources to help students in the private rented sector. The funding will be used to extend the programme to Further Education Student Unions. Ready to Rent launched last year with support from the Foundation and has become well established as a resource and training provider.

“We have received a diverse range of interesting new projects aiming to help the ever growing private rented sector. The number of private tenancies recently grew beyond the social sector for the first time in decades so it is vital that tenants, living longer in rented accommodation, and the growing number of landlords investing part time in property, have easy access to information on their rights and obligations.

The projects we are funding are just one way to help raise standards in the sector. I look forward to reading the applications for funding for our next round in September 2015.”

The Foundation is currently welcoming bids for the next round of funding which is open until 15 September 2015. Organisations can download an application form and view the bidding criteria online at www.tdsfoundation.org.uk

Local projects for landlord and tenant education receive new funding from TDS Charitable Foundation

Community based projects have just been awarded over £16,000 in grants from the TDS Charitable Foundation, funding information and education for private tenants and landlords.

The projects include funding for a local youth radio station, a tenants’ guide to a new landlord licensing scheme, and open door education events for local landlords.

The TDS Charitable Foundation was launched earlier this year and aims to advance education in housing rights and obligations, particularly in the rapidly growing private rented sector.

The Foundation’s Chair, Martin Partington, said;

“Community based projects which help those affected by issues in the private rented sector often don’t get the recognition they deserve. However they are just as important as big nationwide campaigns.

“The projects supported in our latest round of funding are run by people with first-hand experience and expert knowledge of the challenges faced by tenants and landlords in their area. This is a great benefit which campaigns run from the centre simply can’t offer, and why we have given special attention to them.”

The projects awarded funding by the Foundation are:

Advice4Renters £6,460

Selective licensing of landlords will be introduced in Brent in January 2015, and the grant will be used to fund a leaflet and education for tenants in Willesden Green explaining the selective licensing scheme.

KIC FM £6,000

Awareness campaign by a youth community radio station, creating social media and other online resources on tenants’ rights and responsibilities, and ‘on the ground’ activity in the Wolverhampton area.

Keyhouse £3,650

Funding for open door events in Keighley and Bradford with talks, information, and educational materials for private landlords, to advance knowledge around housing rights and their obligations.

Following an overwhelming number of applications seeking funding for general learning materials, in its third round of funding the TDS Charitable Foundation is now inviting bids specifically to develop a set of learning materials to support general landlord and tenant training events.

Bids are also being invited to fund research into the private rented sector and alternative dispute resolution. And innovative bids for promoting education into landlord and tenants’ rights and responsibilities are still being encouraged.

The next deadline for funding applications to the TDS Charitable Foundation is 15 December 2014 and information is available at www.tdsfoundation.org.uk.